Unconditionally
by Amber Rose Black
Summary: When Jacklyn is finally free of the confining walls and torture that is Hydra, will she be able to start over? Finally live a normal life? When she meet a bright young man in a Brooklyn apartment she starts to think that her life is finally going to be normal. Unfortunately that is not the case.
1. Chapter 1

Why Jacklyn chose to stay in Brooklyn she was never quite sure. It could have been the busy streets that amused her. Or the new smell of city air. It could have been that it was a crowded city and made it a great place to hide. Maybe she just wanted to stop running for a while. Stop living her life in constant motion and take a breath.

For a year all Jacklyn did was run. Run, and run until she could no longer stand. She had to get away. The people that had kept her, tortured her, would not stop looking for her. Jacklyn knew that for a fact. That was why she kept going, the reason she had not stopped until she reached a different continent. She still did not feel safe, but the distance between her and Hydra was something she enjoyed immensely.

Now, two years after Jacklyn stopped running, at the age of seventeen, she has a little apartment to herself (One room with a small wall for the toilet) and a small paying job as to afford the shelter and food, Jacky finally feels as if life is looking up.

Jacklyn never though that she could live such a mundane life. Growing up was hard for her, she looked very different from the other kids. Even her own parents hated the site of her, the main reason why they locked her in the basement. Jacklyn never saw another part of her house. They never let her out. Her parents did not want their neighbours to find out that their child was disfigured. That their child had purple skin, a spade-tipped tail, pointy ears and sharp canines.

Jacky knew she was different, even by the age of six she knew that she wasn't right. Her mom called her a monster, her dad called her a freak. She may not know how to read or write well but she definitely knew how to speak. She knew that being a freak or a monster were bad things to be. So she tried to make up for it. One time she tried to peel off her skin to see if it grew back the right colour. It did not work how she would have liked. It hurt, using the sharp edge of a broken piece of glass she found laying around. It hurt a lot. She cried and cried but refused to stop. Six years old and she already could not stand to look at herself. Jacklyn managed to make a big cut up her arm by the time her father came downstairs to investigate why she was making so much noise. He hit her across the face and told her.

"Shut your mouth, the neighbours will hear you."

Then he hit her again, for good measure. This did not stop Jacklyn crying. Her father would have hit her again if he had not seen her arm. It was completely healed. He could have swore he saw a cut there. The blood was all there, yet the cut had disappeared. Her father took the piece of glass from her and no matter how hard she struggled she could not break his iron grip on her arm. Her father cut her arm opened. She howled in pain. Her father did nothing but watch as the cut healed itself in less than 3 minutes. Jacklyn whimpered and told her father that he was hurting her arm. Her father stared at her for a moment and let her go roughly.

"Pathetic." He mumbled on his way out.

Not long after that Hydra came and took her away, handing over a large sum of money to the people who were supposed to love her no matter what. Instead they sold her. They felt no guilt as their child was carted away to become a project, an experiment.

And did Hydra ever experiment on her. There were tests upon tests. Needles and drugs every time they did tests. The food was kept to a minimum and sleep even less so. The experiments never ended. Jacklyn felt as though death would be a better option and wished for it almost everyday. Unfortunately for her death was not an option. In the testing the scientists had found that Jacky could not die. Not by wound or illness. They stabbed her. They drained her of blood, they gave her radiation poisoning. Jacklyn would die for about 24 hours but then would take a breath and keep on living. Her body would heal itself from anything.

For eight years she was put through immense pain, it would make any normal person go crazy, but not Jenny, she was stronger than that. She believed that there was a way out, somewhere nicer outside the bleak, gray walls of the facility. That way out showed up when she was about thirteen.

Hydra had tested a bracelet out, one that covered her entire body and made it look normal. Jacklyn did not know why or how, but suddenly she knew what she had to do. The first time she tried to break out she did not make it very far. They beat her to death. Lucky for her, she couldn't die.

A year later Jacklyn felt something stir inside her. She had been sitting in her cell, nodding off to an uneasy sleep. At first she brushed it off, but soon it felt as though the floor was made of quick sand and she was sinking through. Jacklyn panicked, unable to hold onto anything, scared of drowning in a sea of concrete. She started to get desperate by the time her neck was all the way in the ground and tried willing herself to the surface. That had a very desirable effect. She rose through the ground like riding a wave until she was sat upon the cold floor again. Jacklyn sat there for a minute. Taking a breath after she had almost sank through the floor. At first Jacklyn thought that Hydra had been testing her, but on closer inspection she knew that that was not it. She could tell that she had done it. She knew that she needed to do it again. This way her way out, she could feel it.

Jacklyn walked to the completely sealed metal door of her cell and willed her hand through the metal. She felt an odd tingly sensation as her hand passed clean through the metal, not even making a mark. She pulled her hand back quickly. Her breathing increased it's pace as she became nervous. Was she actually going to get out?

She cautiously stuck her head through the door, the same tingly feeling going through her skull. The hallway was empty. To her luck the guards must be on rotation, that meant that she did not have very long until they came back. She had to go quickly.

Jacklyn got the rest of her body through the door with only a bit of a struggle on her tail. She padded silently but quickly down the hall. She knew her way around the compound. Hydra had become careless with her as the years went by and did not bother covering her eyes when they brought her from place to place. She knew exactly where she needed to go to get the concealing bracelet and how to get out. The room that contained the bracelet was not far from where Jacklyn's cell was. The compound itself was relativity small.

Jacklyn snuck quietly down the halls, ducking quickly behind corners and around bins whenever she saw anyone. After several agonizing minutes she reached the lab with the bracelet inside. She tried the door handle. It was locked. Jacklyn focused once more on her body, feeling as though she was as light as a feather, she stepped through the door. The room was large and blindingly white. There were many drawers filled with devices that Jacklyn knew nothing about. The books in her parents basement said nothing on what were inside labs. In the middle of the room was a big metal table, used to strap her down for experiments. Jacklyn shivered and looked away.

She couldn't see the bracelet from where she was standing and decided to look around. She had to have that bracelet, she had to be able to conceal herself from Hydra. She had to get away.

She traveled to the back of the room, breath increasing in her adrenaline rush. Jacklyn thanked her lucky stars that the lights were left on in the and the lab empty.

She found the silver bracelet on a covered stand far away from the door. It was kept in a crystal clear box, meant to keep prying hands off, but no solid wall could stop Jacklyn now. She reached in with ease and grabbed the bracelet.

Just as she thought she was going to get out an alarm went off. They must have discovered that she wasn't in her cage. Jacklyn took off as fast as her feet could carry her, through the wall and through many more until she started to feel light-headed. She knew she could not keep going through the walls, it was starting to really tire her out. But that was not going to stop her. She was getting out. Jacklyn could feel an exhilarating burst of hope blossom in her chest. She had been running for a couple of minutes when finally, finally she burst through an outer wall.

Jacklyn had to shield her eyes as the sun beat down at her. She had not seen the sun since she was a little girl in her parents basement. Even then she had only been able to watch it through a small dirt covered window that she could barely reach. The fresh air was like heaven too her lungs. She wanted to stand there and take in everything she had missed so dearly, but she could not, she had to go before Hydra caught her.

When Jacklyn's eyes finally adjusted she saw where she was. The Hydra compound was surrounded by a thick, green, forest. It was full of lush plants that seemed to shin in the mid-day sun. The forest was thick blocking out the light, making for good cover. The compound itself was a big, flat-topped brick building with smoke smoke chimneys sticking out the top, spewing all sorts of nasty things into the atmosphere. It was ugly and filled with nasty memories. Jacklyn was going to get as far away from it as possible.

Jacklyn ran. She did not stop until her feet ached and her eyelids were heavy. She could finally sleep. In a hole in the ground, in the middle of a big forest, finally free from those trying to hurt her. Though she knew she was not done running yet

***  
>"Should we send out the dogs, sir?" A man's voice asked in German. It came through a speaker in the wall of the control room.<p>

"No." An old balding man said, eyes on a screen attached to the wall. "I want to see what our little she-devil can do. See her run and think she has gotten away. Consider it an extended experiment."

"Yes, Sir." The first man said.

"Make sure the tracking chip in her and the bracelet are monitored at all times. I want nothing she does to slip passed our noses."

"Yes, Sir." He said again and the speaker turned off. The old man stood close to the screen, a cruel smile twisted on his face.

"You can run, but you can't hide." He said to the moving picture of the girl running on the screen. "Hydra will always find you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter**** 2**

Jacklyn shot up in her small, creaky bed, breathing hard and covered in cold sweat. Her nightmare had been one of the more vivid ones she had had in a long time. It had been two years since she got away from Hydra, one year since she had arrived in Brooklyn, and three months since she had been able to get a job at a small corner store.

Jacklyn's nightmare of the night was one featuring her early days as a prisoner. The time where they electrocuted her to see how long she could last. Jacklyn knew she would never forget the pain that racked her body, like a thousand knives stabbing her all at once. Her body had convulsed and shaken for what seemed like hours, until she could not take anymore and stopped breathing.

She flipped the thin and only blanket she had off of her sweaty body and padded to the kitchen. Jacklyn grabbed a cup and filled it up with water, drinking eagerly. She was always very thirsty after intense nightmares like that one. After her third cup, she put the glass in the sink, she would wash it later, and went to go clean up.

Jacklyn had no shower, normally she would fill a small basin and squeeze her body in for a cold soak, but even that was very costly. She could barely afford food on a good day, she did not have any extra money to pay for lots of water. Normally after a nightmare she would wipe herself down with a wet towel and some soap. It worked, you could no longer smell the sweat on her, and she felt cleaner.

After Jacklyn took her shower, and got dressed in a worn dress, she sat down on the edge of her worn out mattress with a small sigh. When she had first escaped Hydra the nightmares had been nightly. Now every week or so she would have a dreamless sleep, finally catching up on a bit of her sleep deprivation. Those nights were the ones where she would collapse after a long day at the corner store. After she was harassed all day by customers, and her boss had yelled at her for whatever reason, and she had to beg him not to fire her. Jacklyn would fall face first onto her bed and not even bother to take her dress or shoes off. She'd curl up in a ball and in minutes she'd have passed out. On normal night Jacklyn would pace and wander around her small apartment to scared to go to sleep, wanting to stay some place where her terrible memories were not.

Jacklyn looked out the window from her spot on the bed. The mid-winter sun was just rising. Jacklyn cursed her body, she had today off, the first day off in two weeks, and she had really been hoping to sleep in. Now she had nothing to do all day.

Jacklyn felt her stomach growl at her. She frowned trying to remember the last time she ate. She had no idea. Jacklyn knew for certain it had not been yesterday, but it could have been a can of beans and some bread the day before that. It might not have been. She never kept track of when she ate, she did not have enough to eat much and her manager had decided to cut her paycheck, he claimed that business was becoming worse, but Jacklyn knew better. Mr. Vanloon did not care about her. He wanted more money, as most people did, and was not scared to hurt others to get it.

Jacky went to the small cupboard where she kept her small amount of food and was happy to find a can of beans. Beans were pretty much all she ate. They were cheap and easy to keep. She opened up the can and set it to cook.

Jacklyn hummed to herself as she stirred the boiling water. She had heard a lovely tune coming from a shop on her way home from work last night. Jacklyn absolutely adored music, it made her feel at peace, happy, she could loose herself in the music and forget all about her past. She wished she had a radio in her apartment. She had had a radio in her parents basement. It was old and had to be tilted a certain way to catch any stations. It was only able to catch one at that. It was where Jacklyn had learned how to speak English. Her parents sure had not taught her anything. She was able to piece together words that the people on the radio were saying with words from the dusty books that were stored away in the basement. Jacklyn had nothing to do all day except for read and listen to the radio. She still was not great at English, learning the way she did was hard, especially since she did not have anyone to guide her and help her with thing she did not understand. Jacklyn would often stumble over words that were unfamiliar, but she likes to think that she has gotten even better since she left Hydra.

When the beans were done Jacklyn drained out the water and started to eat. There was not many beans in the can, but there was enough that she probably would not need to eat until the next day.

After Jacklyn finished eating and cleaning up she decided to go and check to see if there was any mail. She trudged down the five flights of stairs to the main entrance where the cubbies for mail were kept. There was nothing in hers, as per usual, but her neighbour from across the hall had a letter. Mrs. Henrickson was a kind old woman who was having a hard time walking in her old age, and Jacklyn had taken it upon herself to help out whenever possible. Mrs. Henrickson would invite her over for a home cooked meal every month as a thank you. Jacklyn had not asked for the meal or anything at all, but Mrs. Henrickson had insisted, said that she missed cooking dinner for her children now that they had all grown up and moved away. So Jacklyn graciously excepted the food offered to her.

Jacklyn climbed up the stairs to Mrs. Henrickson's door and knocked. Mrs. Henrickson answered the door and Jacklyn was surprised to see that she did not look well at all. She had dark rings under her bloodshot eyes and a ghostly pallor to her face. She was a little hunched over and gave as little cough before she spoke.

"Good morning dear, it's a little bit early for someone your age to be up."

"Sorry, Mrs. I was just getting the mail when I saw you had some too, I thought I should give it to you, save you an extra.." She paused trying too think of an appropriate word.

"Trip." Jacklyn said with an apologetic smile.

"Thank you, dear. I appreciate it greatly." Mrs. Henrickson, a kind but tired smile on her face.

"You don't look to well Mrs. Henrickson, are you going to be alright." Jacklyn asked, genuinely concerned for the older women's health.

"I'm feeling a bit under the weather today." Mrs. Henrickson said with a small laugh that quickly turned into a cough. She had to turn away from Jacklyn as she coughed into her elbow. Jacklyn reached out her hand before retracting it, unsure how to help.

Mrs. Henrickson regained her posture and continued. "But I was supposed to be looking after the Rogers boy, he lives in the apartment right next to yours. He is even worse than me. I think he might not make it to the end of the winter this year." Mrs. Henrickson gave Jacklyn a small sympathy filled smile.

"He is such a sweet boy too, the world would do much better with more men like Steve Rogers." She said.

"I'm off work today, I could look after him if you want." Jacklyn offered. She didn't have anything to do that way anyways, she would feel terribly guilty if she did not help Mrs. Henrickson, the woman really needed her rest.

"Are you sure." Mrs. Henrickson said, looking surprised at Jacklyn's offer. "You look like you could use some sleep too, I know that your manager has been making you work your butt off at that store. Besides I wouldn't want you to get sick as well. I'm sure I'll be fine to take care of him."

"No, ho-hon-honestly" Jacklyn said, stumbling over the word." I don't think I could get to sleep even if I tried, and I was just going to sit in my apartment anyways... And I never get sick." Jacklyn wasn't exaggerating when she said that she never gets sick. The Hydra scientists had exposed her to all sorts of viruses and only a few had succeeded in infecting her.

Mrs. Henrickson smiled, "Thank you, sweetie, your help would be lovely. I told Mr. Barnes I would be over there-" She paused to look at her watch "- in about two hours, at eight."

"Sure thing Mrs. Henrickson, have a good day." Jacklyn said with a smile before turning to walk to her side of the hallway.

"You too, Jacklyn." Mrs. Henrickson said before closing the door.

Jacklyn sat on her bed for two whole hours starring at the ceiling, wishing for something to do. She wasn't a fan of sitting down, she would much prefer to be doing something like talking a walk (Somewhere where there weren't to many people), reading and listening to music in a shop.

Finally two hours had almost passed and Jacklyn decided to get up and go early before she died of bordem. She had never met her neighbours, though she had heard them through the walls before. They sounded like two teenagers from all the banter and the sound of bodies being tackled to the floor. They moved in only a month ago and never were out in the halls at the same time that she was. She hadn't even known their names until Mrs. Henrickson had told her. Even then she only knew the last name of the second boy. Barnes, she was pretty sure, had been it. Barnes and Steve Rogers.

Jacklyn flattened the skirt of her dress, checked to make sure her disguising bracelet was on, before putting her second-hand, worn out, shoes on and walking out the door. She took a deep breath, feeling anxiety creeping up in her chest, she wasn't very good with people, and knocked.

"That would be Mrs. Henrickson." Came a voice from within the apartment. Jacklyn heard footstep approach and the door knob turn before the door was flung wide open. In the doorway stood a rather handsome young man who looked to be about sixteen. He had a beautiful brown colour hair that was messed up to look like he had just gotten in a tussle, bright green eyes and a muscular physique. He smiled when he saw Jacklyn standing there, Jacklyn had a feeling that his smile greatly affected many other girls, but Jacklyn wasn't one to succumb to someone by just a lovely smile.

"Hello, Darling." The boy, Barnes, she assumed, said. He leaned up against the doorway and crossed his arms in a relaxed gesture. Jacklyn was pretty sure he could tell she was nervous, maybe he was trying to be less threatening.

"What can I help you with?" Barnes said.

"Mrs. Henrickson is ill, I offered to take her place in caring for your friend." Jacklyn said, arms crossing over her chest defiantly, trying not to freak out and run away at social interaction with someone who wasn't a costumer or her boss.

"Ain't that sweet of you." He said pushing himself off the door.

"James Buchanan Barnes." Barnes said sticking out his hand. "But most people call me Bucky."

"Jacklyn Smith." Jacklyn said, shaking Bucky's hand. Smith had been a last name she had made up for herself, she'd never known the last name of her parents and didn't really care. She wanted no part of them.

"Well, Jacklyn, come on in." Barnes said walking away with a swing in his hips. Jacklyn followed quietly.

The apartment was not much bigger than her own, there was a small kitchen off to one side equipped with some pots and food, a small table for eating and a tiny bathroom in the corner. In the center of the room was a small room, the door having been left open, from where Jacklyn was when she had paused she could tell that it was a bedroom with two cots. One of the cots appeared to be occupied by a small mass, and the other was was empty, the covers flung onto the floor.

"It's not much but it's home." Bucky said as he watched Jacklyn observing the apartment.

"I've lived in worse." Jacklyn said. "This isn't that bad. It's nicer than mine."

"Well maybe you should come over more often." He said with a wink before walking into the bedroom, giving Jacklyn no time to react. Jacklyn rolled her eyes, but felt a small smile creep up on her face. It was nice for someone to treat her like a normal human being, and nicely at that. Her boss was mean, the costumers were normally rude, Mrs. Henrickson was the only one to have been nice to her. Even her land lord did not like her very much.

Jacklyn followed Bucky into the bedroom.

"Hey, Stevie." Bucky was saying softly to the person under the blanket. "We have someone else here to take care of you today, Mrs. Henrickson's ill."

The lump on the cot mumbled something that Jacklyn could not hear. Luckily Bucky did.

"Yah, I'm sure the old woman's alright." Bucky said. He motioned with one hand for Jacklyn to come over from where she had been standing in the doorway. Jacklyn almost gasped when she saw the man laying in the bed. He was thin as a twig, gaunt skin stretched over his bones, his eyes had a sunken look to them and his hair was plastered to his forehead. His lips were almost white, he shivered slightly and his light blue eyes were glazed over.

"This is Jacklyn Smith, she lives in the apartment beside ours." Bucky said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as if they'd been friends for years. Jacklyn flinched at the contact, not used to friendly contact yet. Bucky took his arm off, a concerned look in his eyes, but did not say anything. Jacklyn was grateful.

"Steve Rogers." The guy in bed wheezed, his voice much deeper than Jacklyn would have thought for such a small man. He tried to stick out his hand but dropped it back onto the bed when the effort proved to much.

"Nice to meet you, Steve." Jacklyn said with a friendly smile.

"Good! Now that introductions are out of the way I should get goin'!" Bucky said walking towards the door. "Food's in the kitchen, rub his back if he coughs, the inhaler and medicine is on the table, give him a pill every four hours. If none of that works there are instructions beside the inhaler."

Bucky grabbed his jacket. "I'll be back around 9 tonight." And he was gone.

Jacklyn stood there for a moment, not quite sure what to do. She'd never taken care of a sick person before. She hadn't even been sick since Hydra had forced sicknesses on her. Jacklyn had had every type of cancer, yet she did not know what to do.

"I'm sorry that you've gotta be here, you'd probably rather be out with friends or somethin' more excited than takin' care of someone who's sick." Steve said with a breathy laugh, forcing a smile onto his face.

Jacklyn shrugged. "I wasn't doing... anything today, might as well do something worth while." _I don't have any friends_. Jacklyn added to herself.

"You should probably get some sleep." Jacklyn said, seeing Steve's eyes start to droop.

"Yah." He mumbled and gave a little cough. "Yah, I should do that." Steve blinked at Jacklyn before closing his eyes to fall asleep.

The next few hours were pretty uneventful. Jacklyn read the set of instructions just in case, but after that she had nothing to do. There was only one book in the whole apartment, Of Mice and Men. Jacklyn had read the book before, it was one of the only books she had finished in a long time. She loved the book's plot, the characterization, everything. She set about reading it again, having nothing else to do. Steve did not wake up until around six o'clock. Jacklyn heard him cough from in his room and left her book to go check on him.

"Are you awake?" She asked, peeping her head around the door.

"Yah." Steve said groggily. "What time is it?"

"A little after six." Jacklyn said. Steve let out a little chuckle.

"That is the longest I've slept since... The last time I was sick."

Jacklyn frowned, she walked over to Steve's cot and sat gently on the edge, just barely balancing there. Poised as though ready to flee. She always sat like this, never fully relaxing, never going into a deep sleep if she could help it. She had to be alert, she could not let Hydra take her again.

"Do you get sick often?" Jacklyn asked.

"I get sick lots. I think it's 'cause I'm so small, you know?" Steve said.

"Being small isn't that bad of a thing, easier to hide." Jacklyn pointed out.

"I don't want to hide." Steve said, a determined edge to his voice.

"That... makes one of us." Jacklyn mumbled to herself, unfortunately Steve's hearing was better than she thought.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked. "Are you hiding from someone?"

"The world's just a lot rougher out there for women, that's all. Men don't normally... listen to us." Jacklyn said, and she was not really lying, just not saying the bigger truth.

"I think that women should be treated equally, there smart and strong as any man could be." Steve said, his eyes sparkling with something fierce.

Jacklyn smiled. "I knew there was a reason I liked you." And if Steve's face turned a little pink.

Jacklyn put her hand on his forehead to make sure he was not burning up. His temperature was a little higher than normal, but he seemed stronger than before.

"I'm going to go get you some crackers or something, you need to eat something." Jacklyn got up off the bed and went to the kitchen. She found a couple crackers in the cupboard above the sink and took them back to Steve.

Jacklyn helped Steve sit up and gave him one cracker at a time, making sure he was not going to throw up. They chatted pleasantly, talking about work, Mrs. Henrickson, and the news. Jacklyn learned that Steve was trying to make a living as an artist, but was a little unsuccessful and had started picking up some shifts at a local grocers. Jacklyn made him promise to show her some of his artwork when he was feeling better.

All was going well until only twenty minutes until Bucky was back. Conversation had started to become a comfortable silence when Steve put his hand to his chest, a painful expression on his face.

"Steve, are you alright?" Jacklyn asked, the worry seeping into her voice. Steve did not answered, he tried to suck in a breath but seemed unable to and started to cough. His coughs were loud and strong. They wracked his small body with enough force to slam him into the wall.

Jacklyn felt panic creep up into her brain, but quickly pushed it away, panicking would not help. She remembered the instructions left on the table and the inhaler. The inhaler was what she knew she had to get.

Jacklyn leaped up from her spot on Steve's cot and ran to the little table. She scooped it up and ran back into the room. Jacklyn pushed the inhaler into his hand, hoping that he would know what to do with it. Steve shakily brought the device up to his mouth and took several deep puffs. His cough slowed and then stopped, Jacklyn rubbed his back as instructed until he could breath properly.

"How are you... feeling?" She asked.

"Winded." Steve answered with a weak smile. Jacklyn smiled back.

"Sorry." Steve said.

"Steven Rogers, I have only known you for less than a..." This time Jacklyn was unable to remember the word. " I haven't know you for long, and let me tell you, you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to be sorry for." Jacklyn said, making sure she stared directly into his eyes to let Steve know that she was being honest.

Steve averted his eyes.

"Hey." Jacklyn said, Steve looked up. "How about you tell me more about your artwork?"

"Well, I don't really know what else to say about my artwork..." Steve said a small smile on his face.

"Anything, anything you like." Jacklyn said, and so Steve talked.

Bucky got home not much later. He told Jacklyn to go get some sleep and thanked her for the help. Jacklyn smiled and told him it had been a good day, and if they ever needed help again she would love to.

Jacklyn left that night, a smile on her face, hoping to see her new friend very soon.

**Jo: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked it, I hope you like this one to!**


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